Joining the recent stampede of tales about cows looking for ways out of the chew-and-moo routine, this relentlessly average episode drops Lucille, a cow with an urge to be like the racehorse in the next pasture, onto a real track where she proceeds to do her own thing. Following unnoticed as crowds rush into the stadium at the County Fair, Lucille conveniently finds herself at the starting gate. Though the horses lap her twice after the gun goes off, she gamely trots her way around despite moments of self-doubt, and is rewarded by the cheers of the crowd and a share of the winner’s circle. Griffiths matches Hamilton’s bland text with pale watercolors that reveal a shaky grasp of rendering eyes and mouths. However worthy the general theme may be, considering the plethora of recent takes on it this will be left in the dust behind the likes of George Shannon’s Secret Chicken Club (2005), illustrated by Deborah Zemke, Carol Weis’s When the Cows Got Loose (2006), illustrated by Art Hoyt, or Ros Hill’s Shamoo: A Whale of a Cow (2005). (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2006
ISBN: 1-55041-871-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Fitzhenry & Whiteside
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2006
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
Rylant (Henry and Mudge and the Sneaky Crackers, 1998, etc.) slips into a sentimental mode for this latest outing of the boy and his dog, as she sends Mudge and Henry and his parents off on a camping trip. Each character is attended to, each personality sketched in a few brief words: Henry's mother is the camping veteran with outdoor savvy; Henry's father doesn't know a tent stake from a marshmallow fork, but he's got a guitar for campfire entertainment; and the principals are their usual ready-for-fun selves. There are sappy moments, e.g., after an evening of star- gazing, Rylant sends the family off to bed with: ``Everyone slept safe and sound and there were no bears, no scares. Just the clean smell of trees . . . and wonderful green dreams.'' With its nice tempo, the story is as toasty as its campfire and swaddled in Stevenson's trusty artwork. (Fiction. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-689-81175-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1998
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